EVEN AS BP battles to check the damage caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, India is showing how far it is from recovering from its own worst industrial accident. A group of government ministers appointed to suggest remedies for the disaster in 1984 at Bhopal, in central India, made its recommendations on June 21st. It urged the government to step up its efforts to extradite Warren...
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Indians, Envious of U.S. Spill Response, Seethe Over Bhopal by Lydia Polgreen
The contrast between the disasters, more than a quarter-century and half a world apart, could not be starker. In 1984, a leak of toxic gas at an American company’s Indian subsidiary killed thousands, injured tens of thousands more and left a major city with a toxic waste dump at its heart. The company walked away after paying a $470 million settlement. The company’s American chief executive, arrested while in India, skipped...
More »Bhopal GoM for more compensation, Anderson's extradition
The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal gas disaster is understood to have decided on Monday to recommend enhanced compensation to the families of those dead in the gas leak and to those debilitated permanently or partially. Sources said the compensation would be to the tune of Rs. 10 lakh for the kin of those dead. Those with permanent disability would be compensated to the tune of Rs five lakh...
More »Rs.982 crore ‘sanctioned' for gas victims by Sujay Mehdudia
Hours before the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram met on Friday, the Planning Commission is understood to have released Rs.982 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for rehabilitation of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims. There was no official word on the reported approval of funds. The funds released for sustainable economic and medical rehabilitation of the victims would need the approval of the GoM, official...
More »UPA-I opposed increase in Bhopal payout by Dhananjay Mahapatra
The alacrity shown by the government in setting up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into all issues of the Bhopal gas tragedy - including adequacy of compensation - was clearly missing just three years ago when the UPA government opposed tooth and nail any enhancement of payment to the sufferers. Two applications by NGOs - Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS) and Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog...
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